The September 11 Healing Field in Tempe. Please, never forget.

This morning, dozens of volunteers descended on Tempe Beach Park to put up almost 3,000 U.S. flags ”“ one for every man, woman and child that was killed on September 11, 2001.

Believe me when I tell you that this was not an easy task. A piece of rebar had to be pounded into the ground for every flag, flags attached to poles, and a name card for every person killed was then attached to each flag. Yellow ribbons were added to the flag of all the “first responders” killed that day.

As difficult as the physical work was, it paled in comparison to the emotional effort.

But I didn’t hear one single complaint from any volunteer. We had some fun, but there were far more moments of thought and reflection.

When you attach something like this to an American flag, it tends to really drive home the magnitude of loss on that tragic day:

The card reads:

In Memory Of Dana Falkenberg, Age 3. Location: AA Flight 77 About Dana: Dana Falkenburg, 3, was traveling with her father Charles Falkenberg, mother Leslie Whittington, and her sister Zoe Falkenberg, 8.

If that doesn’t put a lump in your throat, a tear in your eye and royally piss you off, then you may want to have your heart checked out.

I was so proud to be a part of this group. There were Girl Scouts, young kids, members of the National Guard, fire and police officers, and folks from all walks of life. We shared a common goal ”“ to honor every victim of the 9/11 attacks.

About four and a half hours later, the job was done.

Here’s a short video I shot in the middle of the process. Trying to capture the scope of the Healing Field in video, photos and words isn’t easy to do. In fact, it can’t be done. You need to experience it. If you live anywhere near Tempe, Arizona, you really need to go see this memorial.

And yes, that’s an airplane overhead at the end of the video. The Healing Field is under the flight path of Sky Harbor airport–planes flew over all morning, which was almost surreal.

Tempe September 11 Healing Field info

Dates/Times: Friday September 10 at 600am through Sunday September 12 at 7:00pm On September 11 at 5:30am a service will be held (The early time is not a typo. The service is held during the actual AZ time the planes struck the World Trade Center) Location: Tempe Beach Park (map)

About Jay Thompson

I'm a former real estate broker in Phoenix, Arizona, currently work for Zillow Group and am the founder of the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog. I tend to drive too fast and scream at the University of Texas and Denver Broncos football teams. My two kids are smarter than most adults I know and my wife is simply amazing.

Really awesome stuff Jay, way to go and great tribute. Hard to believe it's been 9 years, Jay you weren't even in real estate 9 years ago. This was such an incredible event, the way everyone seemed to come together was really amazing. We will all remember where we were at and what we were doing on 9/11 much similar to our parents / grandparents during Pearl Harbor / JFK.

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[…] and operated. I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Flancer the morning a bunch of folks set up the 9/11 Healing Field in Tempe. Super nice guy that does a lot for the community. In addition to the Gilbert location, they also […]

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